Obama also becomes the first Quora member to get a "verified profile," confirming to other members of the Quora community that the answers came from the White House and not from someone pretending to be the president.

Other public figures on Quora, and for that matter, other members of the Q&A social network who are not as well-known will also be able to get verified profiles starting today, says Alex Wu, Quora's head of product marketing and partnerships.

Quora's mission is to build a constantly evolving collection of questions and answers that are created, edited and organized by the very people who use the free service. Some 500,000 topics have been addressed since Quora was first made available to the public in June 2010.

My own experience using Quora is that most of the people weighing in on the various topics have the intellectual chops, first hand knowledge or other credentials to back up their words.

"We think the president answering questions about his signature health care law is the ultimate Quora experience," Wu says.

The White House confirms that Obama himself, and not staffers, wrote the answers. "As we continue our efforts to enroll as many Americans as possible for quality, affordable health insurance ahead of the March 31st deadline, the President's goal is to meet people - especially young adults - where they are."

Mark Cuban, Ashton Kutcher, Reed Hastings, Craig Newmark, Jeremy Lin, Sheryl Sandberg, Alfonso Cuaron, Jason Bateman, Cory Booker, Michael Buble, and Ethan Hawke are among the other Quora members who will get verified profiles as soon as today. Wu says the rollout of verified profiles will be gradual.

There's no formal application process to make that happen. Instead, Wu advises members who want to get verified to link their Quora accounts to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also helps if other known (or presumed) experts upload your answers.